The parish and Jesuit church Sankt Peter with its Kunst-Station initiative has turned into an important player in the contemporary art scene of Cologne. The renovation of the sanctuary space 10 years ago enhances the exchange between independent cultural tendencies of our time: religion, art, music and literature. Art here is not perceived as an illustration of religion but as free and autonomous.
At the beginning of the 90's exhibitions of contemporary triptychs founded the reputation of Kunst-Station Sankt Peter. Internationally renowned artists such as Bacon, Chillida, Holzer, Lüpertz, Rainer, Saura, Tàpies, Trockel or Uecker, were among the many artists realising an altarpiece. Before the renovation mainly the spatial interventions of James Lee Byars and Anish Kapoor envisioned the new architecture of the church.
Eduardo Chillida donated the altar sculpture 'Gurutz Aldare' to Sankt Peter. Since then, this piece defines the space and gives an extra dimension to Peter Paul Rubens painting 'crucifixion Petri' as well as to temporary exhibitions. Abakanowicz and Lüpertz impressed with more traditional and monumental bronze sculptures. Haraguchi's oiltank, Boltanski and Kounellis created memorable images using daily objects. Gregor Schneider provoked with his technical looking object 'Kryotank', a confrontation between the Christian beliefs in resurrection and the secular desires of immortality. Jack Pierson with his wordpiece 'anyone' and Angela Glajcar with her paper-sculpture, focused on questions of identity and ideology.
In this manner artists have allowed a continuous exchange between religion, art and current affairs. However, this has so far been done by traditional forms of art: painting, sculpture, photography and installations. For the first time the Kunst-Station presents generative and digital art. In this manner it
provides a platform for multimedia art as expression of a transforming world and society through digitalization. LAb[au]'s installation framework f5x5x5 focuses on the relation between art and technology as well as architecture and its religious connotation. These contrasts between old and new forms of art meet on the metalevel. This defines also the composition 'Kopplungen' of Maciej Sledzieck based on the coupling of the Installation with the church organ. During the mess and sermons these works will provoke intense discussions.
We are looking forward to this exchange and want to thank everyone involved in the realization of this exhibition, above all LAb[au]. Only due to the open minded dedication of the artists it is for the Kunst-Station Sankt Peter once more possible to discover new ways in the intercultural transfer between religion and art.
Renate Goldmann, Kai Kullen, Guido Schlimbach and Sophia Ungers